Handling employee smoke breaks can sometimes be tricky. A worker has no right to a break specifically for the purpose of smoking. An employee who works more than six hours per day has the statutory right to a rest break. The minimum is 20 minutes away from their workstation under the Working Time Regulations 1998. So, an employee may use their statutory rest break to smoke outside the workplace. However, this may be subject to any restrictions imposed by you and the company on smoking outside workplace buildings. All enclosed workplaces are required by legislation to be smoke free. As an employer you must also display ‘no smoking’ signs in all workplaces and vehicles. No smoking signs in Wales must be in both Welsh and English. If signs are not displayed, a business could be fined up to £1000. Make sure people don’t smoke in enclosed work premises or shared vehicles. Staff smoking rooms are no longer allowed, smokers must go outside. You cannot prevent a member of staff from taking their statutory rest break though. If a worker takes any breaks in addition to their statutory rest break or any contractual break, you may treat this as misconduct. In practice, most statutory […]

There are 1.3 million people in the UK who use electronic cigarettes. For a long time now employers have been grappling with whether smoking electronic cigarettes at work should be treated the same or differently to smoking at work. Smoking in the workplace is banned, but that ban does not extend to smoking electronic cigarettes at work. A recent tribunal decision has helped clarify things a little. A Catering Assistant was seen by a Head Teacher to be using her electronic cigarette in full view of school pupils. The employee resigned and claimed constructive dismissal against her employer, the catering company, as they were facing a disciplinary hearing. However, the claim was not upheld. The tribunal made it clear that the school’s Smoking Policy would have been relevant in considering the case. The Policy banned smoking on school premises. However, it did not expressly prohibit smoking electronic cigarettes at work. If the Catering Assistant had been dismissed, she could have argued that she had been unfairly dismissed because the policy did not expressly prohibit smoking electronic cigarettes at work. The Effects The jury is still out on the health effects of smoking electronic cigarettes at work. Public Health England in 2014 […]